It will be interesting to see how things play out in the future if Gus Bradley, pictured, is a success in Jacksonville and Chip Kelly fails in Philadelphia or vice versa.
(Stephen Morton/Associated Press)

PHILADELPHIA — Before Chip Kelly changed his mind and the Eagles gave him 32.5 million reasons to do so, the guy who was going to be the next Eagles head coach was Gus Bradley.

Bradley was in Philadelphia when Kelly called back to say he would leave Oregon, so the former Seattle defensive coordinator left for Jacksonville where he became the head coach of the Jaguars.

Saturday, the Eagles will get an up close look of what they could have had when they travel to Jacksonville, Fla., for preseason game No. 3 against Bradley and the Jaguars.

“He’s awesome,” Lawrence High graduate Brett Brackett, who is trying to win a job as a backup tight end with the Jags, said of Bradley. “You know exactly where he stands on things. I really like him a lot. He just has so much energy, and it’s contagious.”

Bradley had the reputation of being an upbeat, loud, at times in-your-face coach when he led the Seattle defense. Apparently nothing has changed as he has taken charge of a Jaguars team coming off a two-win season.

“He’s very enthusiastic,” running back Maurice Jones-Drew said. “He wants everybody to have a good time, have fun. But his message is to get better.”

Like Kelly, Bradley had a quarterback competition in training camp and, also like Bradley, picked his starter this week. Unlike Kelly, Bradley went with the younger player, third-year man Blaine Gabbert over veteran Chad Henne.

“All the guys really took to his message,” Gabbert said. “He just brings so much energy, not just to the team but to the whole organization and even to the town. The guys have really gravitated toward that.”

Kelly has tried to do the same with an Eagles organization that grew stale after 14 years of Andy Reid’s leadership.

How he does here and how Bradley does in Jacksonville will be interesting to observe over the next few years. Albeit, just a preseason, it starts tonight.

• Some things to watch for in Saturday’s game.

Jason Peters, who missed all of the 2012 season with a torn Achilles and has not played at all this preseason because of a hamstring injury, will be back on the field. Peters said he would play three quarters. Kelly said he would play a half, and then he’ll see.

“We’ll play the starters the half, and then we’ll evaluate at halftime,” Kelly said. “See how many snaps he’s gotten. Jason needs to get in; he knows that.”

• Kelly hasn’t said for sure, but it looks like Michael Vick will play the entire first half and maybe into the third quarter.

Nick Foles will play the rest of the game. That means rookie Matt Barkley may not play at all.

Don’t worry Barkley fans, he may get the entire fourth preseason game Thursday night against the Jets.

• Nate Allen will start at safety for the second straight week in the secondary with Patrick Chung.

Allen, like most of the defense, played better against Carolina in the second preseason game than he did against New England in the first. A good game against Jacksonville and he could win the starting job opening night.

“There is still competition there,” defensive coordinator Billy Davis said of the safety spot. “We really want to get a good look at all the guys and see where we are at the end of (the game).”

Nate Allen, left, is close to locking up a starting safety job with the Eagles.Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News

Kenny Phillips, the free agent from the Giants, has been injured most of camp and has not played in the first two games and will likely miss the Jacksonville game as well.

• It looks more and more like Brandon Boykin will remain the team’s nickel cornerback with the starters being free-agent additions Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher.

“Brandon, we truly want to see him at the nickel spot,” Davis said. “Because this day and age and the way the NFL is right now, your nickel defensive back plays more than some of your inside (linebackers). There are more three wide receiver sets, and you end up playing nickel just as much, if not more; I think it’s about 60 percent of the NFL snaps are three wide receivers or more. So that nickel position is like a starting corner. So it’s not like you lost out as a starting corner and now you’re just playing the nickel.

“That is a huge job that gets a lot of attention and really is a unique skill set. It’s not that he’s not challenging outside, but if we can get the best guys on the field, and we’ve been taking a hard look at Brandon in there.”